Advisory Board

James L. Jones, Jr is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. He has tribal connections to the three northern Minnesota Chippewa Communities, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians. Jim is into his 34th year of Indigenous Cultural Resource Ceremonies. He has worked twenty-two years with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council as their Cultural Resource Director. This work included knowing and understanding Historic Preservation Laws and with Minnesota State Laws. Jim has assisted with burial identifications and the Minnesota Reburial program going back to 1987. Recently, In 2018 he was the project manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for the line three proposed replacement route that Fond du Lac completed on behalf of Enbridge Energy Partners. This was the first Tribal Cultural Resource Survey taken on by any major energy company. It also the longest survey to take place reviewing all 337 miles of the proposed route within Minnesota. Last year he started the MN Tribal Contractors Council to give a voice to the tribal owned businesses that were involved with the line three replacement and to help promote Indigenous owned businesses with other companies in the construction trades, and too promote tribal workforce within our communities in northern Minnesota.

Roland Hill grew up and resides in Aitkin, Mn.  He started working with his father at Simon’s Body Shop painting his first car at age 15. Cars and racing stock cars was a passion shared with family, but his father encouraged him to get out of the auto body business, complete college and go do “something easier”.  Roland worked for the USDA Soil Conservation Service for 3 years and in 1992 he joined Grand Casino Mille Lacs as a community liaison and eventually became Vice President of Marketing. In 2002, Roland left Grand Casino and started his entrepreneurship and fun ventures. Roland has a Bachelor Degree in Marketing from Concordia College in St Paul.

Over the years, the true passion for building bridges between culture and community became evident resulting in Roland making his career and livelihood in putting people around the table for business, philanthropic, engagement and community reasons. His network stretches over several Tribes, regions and industries, including, real estate, gaming, energy, insurance, automotive, non-profit, education, outdoors and philanthropic Currently Roland is a Tribal Liaison for Avery Technical Resources/Workrise. As a proud member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, he spends ample time within the Red Lake Nation Community and is Board President for Red Lake Incorporated. 

Roland has been married to his wife Kay, (Edina Realty Realtor) for 30 years and has two grown boys, Kylan, (MnDNR Conservation Officer) and Kinzer, (Aitkin County Forester). Roland and Kay are enjoying being first time grandparents to their grandson Simon Hill. Roland’s passions are the outdoors chasing whitetails on the Rez and fishing Lower Red Lake for the famous Red Lake Walleye. In addition, Roland is a 25 year turkey hunting veteran and guides for free to friends, family, and kids and prides himself in being able to find a tom turkey anywhere in the state of Minnesota.

Martin Jennings is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Northern MN. He has nearly four decades of service to Indian Country through a variety of positions held with Tribal governments, Foundations and nonprofits. Most of his time has been spent in the economic/community development field where Martin oversaw: planning, development, construction, and management of various social/economic programs and businesses. Jennings construction experiences range from pre-development through construction management including owner representative responsibilities for multi-million dollar capital expansions in housing and gaming.

Martin currently leads the Northwest Indian Community Development Center in Bemidji MN. He is a new resident of Bemidji where he resides with his wife and children.

José L. Pérez is co-founder, President and CEO of Hispanics In Energy (HIE), a national non-profit organization since 2012 designed to drive Hispanic inclusion in America’s all the above energy’s three-trillion dollar industry. HIE has convened energy policy forums in Washington D.C., Illinois, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington D.C., Arizona, and California.

In 2021, he was a key witness before the House Energy Committee on energy policy, in which 40 House members participated.

In 2020, Jose was named “Energy Ambassador” by the U.S. Department of Energy to assist with access to underserved communities for all of their offices and to provide advice on enhancing the role of equity in energy.

In 2019 Jose was named Chair of the Energy Utilities Diversity Group, which successfully prepared a legislative report for the Minnesota State Legislature on job and business diversity matters.

In partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Jose prepared a Resolution to encourage utility commission convening power to increase diversity in the Energy STEM pathway and approved by the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). Pérez is also the owner and publisher of the Latino Journal (Founded in 1996). This non-partisan digital media company provides an independent analysis of public policy and government as it affects 60 million Hispanic Americans, America’s largest minority group.

Over the years, Jose built solid national relationships with elected and appointed public officials at the federal, state, and local levels. He created and led several non-profits such as the National Utilities Diversity Council (NUDC), the California Utilities Diversity Council (CUDC), and the Energy Utilities Diversity Group (EUDG) in Minnesota. In addition, he is a leader in the Hispanic chamber circles, including former vice-chair of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, president of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and board member of the Latin Business Association of Los Angeles. He also held executive positions in state government, such as at the CA Dept. of Transportation and CA State Personnel Board. He is an expert in all areas of personnel management in both the private and public sectors. He also served as special advisor to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, Arizona Corporation Commission, and California Public Utilities Commission.

He has a bachelor’s degree in government from California State University, Sacramento, and a corporate governance certificate from the Graduate School of Business at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. He resides in Eagan, MN, and is a former resident of California; and was born and raised in Texas.